Sunday, September 22, 2013

Saying patients need no politicians but doctors and medicines during times of medical needs, the labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) has thrown its support to Senate Bill 1445 filed by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago that seeks to provide free essential healthcare directly to the poor.

Santiago’s proposal provides for the distribution to indigents of free essential medicines through barangay health centers.The bill seeks to give the secretary of health the discretion to determine the kind of medicines that would be included in the free medicine program. The measure effectively removes the power of discretion enjoyed by lawmakers over their Priority Development Fund (PDAF) that reinforces the system of political patronage in the country.

“Senator Miriam’s proposal is in line with our view that the pork barrel fund must be replaced with a ‘universal system’ where social services are provided by the State as entitlement to every Filipino citizen and not as charity from epal politicians,” said PM spokesman Wilson Fortaleza.

The group likewise finds Santiago’s bill a strong argument against porky solons in the Lower House who are seeking a TRO against the removal of their discretion to medical and scholarship funds.

Fortaleza added that as pointed out by many studies, it is this discretionary nature of the pork barrel fund which makes this system a “political” rather than as a “developmental” tool.

Partido ng Manggagawa has called for a package of four steps it dubs as “Apat na Dapat” in getting rid of the evil pork barrels system. These include:

Abolition of the pork barrel system at all levels;

Replacing it with a universal system to fund universal social protection programs such as universal healthcare, public employment program, education; socialized housing, and farm insurance/subsidies, among others;

Institutionalization of participatory budget process; and;

Passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.

Universal healthcare, Fortaleza argued, is one of the top concerns of Filipinos as cost of medical services in the country remains high while the supply side cannot cope with the rising demand for health services.

Health experts estimated that the country needs some P312B-P350-B in 2015 to meet the essential health needs of every Filipino. Based on national health accounts, 57.9 per cent of medical care comes from a household’s ‘out of pocket’ expense.

It will take 20 years for a
minimum wage earner, assuming he starves himself and his family to death in
order to save the full amount in two decades, to gain what Labor Secretary
Rosalinda Baldoz earned in just a span of one year. Secretary Baldoz was a non-millionaire in
2011 but became one in 2012 with a net worth of P2.9 million owing to the
assessed value of her properties, according to a news report.[1]

The recently issued Wage Order
granting P10 wage hike in the National Capital Region won’t change this picture
of inequity. For while presidential and
legislative pork and perks shored up the lavish and comfortable lifestyles of a
few VIPs in government, millions of workers live a life of hopelessness and
deprivation in this country.

Ten pesos (P10) can’t even buy a
half kilo of rice or bring a minimum wage earner farther than a five-kilometer
bus ride. That is exactly how ordinary
workers translate the P10 wage increase.
In fact many reactions from those interviewed on-cam, though they vary
on what a P10 coin can instantly buy for them, point to the common view that
the new wage order is a comic relief or a “painful joke” as described by the
spokesperson of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

Nevertheless, whether it is a
painful joke or a whipping insult to workers under a prevailing environment
where billions of public funds are lost to official fraud and scams, the new
wage order exposes in a more shameful manner the ugly face of inequality in
this country. And unless this problem is
addressed through major policy shifts in the remaining years of the Aquino
administration, PNoy will be remembered as a president whose legacy was making
the VIP treatment of Napoles possible, but not for making Philippine growth
inclusive for the poor.

Palace defence

Malacanang, through assistant
Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte, defended the P10 wage hike as a
balancing act on the part of the government.
We keep on hearing this line since time immemorial. And nobody, including experts, dared to dispute
this argument that sees the ghosts of inflation and mass unemployment once
wages are adjusted to satisfactory levels.
If such is true, other countries may have taken the same course and by
mistake joined our cluster at the lowest bottom of the global pay scale. On the other hand,
the experience of other countries is that wage increases do not only provide
workers a decent living but more importantly it creates demand and contributes
to the sustainability of economic growth.

A study on global pay scale[2]
conducted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) using 2009 data showed
the Philippines
landing at the bottom third in the list of 72 countries. The global average was US$1,480 per month. The Philippines
with US$279 only was slightly higher than Pakistan’s
US$255 and Tajikistan’s
US$227.

Furthermore, even in terms of GDP
share per capita, the ASEAN comparison also showed that the Philippines is
lagging behind its neighbours, besting only Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR.

What “balance”, therefore, is Ms.
Valte talking about? Did the government
achieve balance with the P10 wage increase? Can this amount correct the
imbalance between the swelling fortunes of the Philippines’
richest capitalists and the starvation wage levels for their thousands of
contractual employees? The President
told us during his SONA last July that the strategy in making growth inclusive
is “sagarin ang oportunidad para sa lahat”.
Again we ask: Sagad na ba ang P10?

Faces of inequality

Balance, for us, is none other than
the presumed regulatory framework of the State. As such, before a sense of
balance comes out, a social framework has to be established first to arrive at
a measurable outcome. Therefore, if the
framework is inclusive growth, then the objective should be set on lifting the
many from the margins and bringing them into the center of economic
growth. On the contrary, if balance is
understood as plain neutrality, which is downright hypocrisy, with regards to
contending class interests in the country, State policies in effect reinforce
or worsen rather than rectify the chronic social imbalance.

For instance, we only have, in the
number of employed persons, 4.6% professionals and 16% government and private
executives who enjoy relatively high wages and other privileges. But a third of
37 million “employed” Filipinos, based on April Labor Force Survey, are
laborers and unskilled workers. Another
25% are service and sales workers, farmers, fisherfolks and forestry workers. They are the majority of underpaid workers
who receive the barest or even less of the mandated minimum wages all over the
country.

Our own estimate suggests that a
family of six in Metro Manila need at least P1,200 per day to enjoy decent food
and non-food requirements. The new
minimum of P466 is not even half of that amount. It’s almost sure that workers in other
regions will receive lower than the P10 wage hike granted in NCR and have to
wait for a longer period of time before they are issued a new wage order.

This is the face of labor in the
country today. On the other side are
capitalists, big and small, who also demand balance from government policies
that they effectively get most of the time.
The Forbes Magazine’s latest list of richest people in the world
includes 50 Filipino billionaires who control more than one fourth of the
country’s GDP. Their combined net worth
of US$65.8-B is equivalent to the one year income of 30.9 million minimum wage
earners. From 2006 to 2013, their fortune
increased by 348%, the richest ten of them by 1,005%.

During the same period, however,
real wage in Metro Manila increased by only 41% from P258 to P363. Now how is balance settled in this case?

I am sure the Palace’s
spokespersons will evade the question by pointing out that small scale
enterprises comprise more than 90% Philippine business, many of which were
exempted from previous wage orders.
Hence the small but many become the cover of a general policy on cheap
labor.

If such is the logic of balance,
does this mean Filipino workers have to first wait for these small businesses
to grow big, which is next to impossible under the era of globalization, before
a living wage provided under the Constitution is achieved? The bosses deserve no less than a
straightforward answer from our well-paid, porked-up executives and
policymakers in government.

If the answer is yes, the more we
want to hear about concrete strategies on how to make the country’s growth more
equal or inclusive through other social policies. What we see, however, is the reverse. Instead of providing universal social
protection in the absence of full and gainful employment, it is the government
itself which pushes for the removal of government subsidies for instance in MRT
and LRT systems, the corporatization/privatization of government hospitals,
budget cuts in state colleges and universities, the appropriation of city spaces
to giant land developers, delays in land reform, and the unrestrained execution
of privatization and deregulation policies that keeps prices of water, power,
and other basic needs such as oil and staple food to inordinate levels.

Perpetuating the pork barrel
system through other forms or through other name will only aggravate the
problem with the same breed of politicians presiding over the body in charge of
policy making.

Feel the pain

But how can we expect an
honest-to-goodness response from our well-paid government functionaries when
they don’t feel the pain of living the life of a minimum wage earner? For the past 20 years, for instance, Congress
turned a deaf ear on workers’ plea for a legislated wage hike and proposed
reforms in wage fixing mechanisms. In the last two decades, the regional wage
boards—as a wage fixing mechanism— have been proven ineffective in addressing
the gap between minimum wage and the cost of living. Hence the wage boards
should be abolished and replaced with a national wage commission mandated to
fix minimum wage at the national level and to provide other relief measures to
workers in order to approximate national minimum wage to the cost of living.

What Congress has passed, on the
contrary, were measures that imposed undue burdens to workers and the poor such
as contractualization; privatization of essential services such as power and
water; EVAT and other taxes; automatic appropriations on debt payments; and
outright trade liberalization that effectively killed local industries and
pulled the break to our march towards industrialization.

Perhaps it is because 98% of
members of Congress are multi-millionaires and their main pre-occupation was
not the chronic problem of social inequality in the country but the equal division
of their pork and perks. The same is
true for the Executive branch where the President leads a club of millionaires
aided by VIP technocrats recruited from big business.

The Philippines, the government
brags, is the fastest growing economy in Asia today. But who is going to sing hallelujah to this
triumph when inequality persists and labor productivity is rewarded with a
measly increase of P10 per day? Wage increases in
times of economic growth is not only just but a rightful share of workers to the
fruits of their labor since it is the factor of production that is key to the
growth of the economy and the profits of employers.

We have had positive economic
growth during the last 30 years except for the crises years of 1984, 1985,
1991, and 1998. Yet chronic pain has
remained because past and present governments continue to pursue the same
policy of cheap labor while the country is under the perpetual rule of corrupt
politicians.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

The militant Partido ng
Manggagawa (PM) criticized the government’s defense of the P10 wage hike for
workers in the National Capital Region by pointing out that it will not lead to
inclusive growth. “President Benigno Aquino III keeps on boasting about the
7.8% increase in gross domestic product yet for him P10 in coins is all that the
creators of this greater wealth can partake of!,” exclaimed Wilson Fortaleza,
PM spokesperson.

He added that “PNoy’s ‘inclusive growth’ is just so much propaganda
if the government cannot give workers a better share of the cake no different
from the rhetoric of ‘daang matuwid’ since the administration favors reform not
abolition of the pork barrel.”

Fortaleza
explained that “Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte’s alibi that a bigger pay
raise will lead to job losses is the usual capitalist blackmail that government
has parroted for the last three decades. All that time—except for the recession
years 1984, 1985, 1991 and 1998—the economy has developed even as poverty, hunger
and unemployment has persisted. Without wealth redistribution—and a living wage
instead of poverty pay is a key component—inequality will remain.”

PM has called on labor groups, including the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines which has rejected the
P10 hike as a “painful joke,” for a coordinated campaign for a living wage. “If
the middle class finds it necessary to hold a Million People March for the
abolition of the pork barrel, it is imperative on the working class to launch a
mass movement to end the cheap labor policy,” the group averred.

“With a P10 pay hike, how can the government expect to lift
out of dire poverty the 28% of Filipinos, as revealed in the National Statistics
and Coordinating Board (NSCB) survey from 2006 to 2012? With a P10 wage raise,
how can the 19.2% of Filipinos who experience hunger put more food on their
tables?,” Fortaleza
asked.

He contended that “Valte’s excuse that the measly wage hike sought
to balance workers and employers interests is a surefire formula to aggravate
inequality. According to Forbes magazine, the wealth of the richest 50 Filipinos
increased by an incredible 348% from 2006 to 2012 while that of the richest 10
grew by an immoral 1,005%.”

“The PhP 1.9 trillion combined wealth of the richest 10
Filipinos is equivalent to the yearly income of 21 million minimum wage
earners. While the PhP 2.8 trillion total wealth of the richest 50 corresponds
to the yearly pay of 31 million minimum waged workers. Based on the Global Pay Scale
survey, the Philippines
ranks second to the last before Tajikistan
with Filipino workers average wage of US$ 279 way below the world median of US$
1,480,” Fortaleza
furthered.

As a concrete proposal, PM is advocating the replacement of
the regional wage boards by aNational Wage Commission.
Fortaleza stated
that“The mandate of the Wage Commission will be to fix wages based
on the single criterion of cost of living. This is different from the wage boards which are bogged down by
convoluted and contradictory 10-point criteria in fixing wages. The Wage Commission should raise the
minimum wage to the level of
the living wage by a mix of
mechanisms such as direct pay
increases, tax exemptions, price discounts and social security subsidies for
workers.”

Saturday, September 7, 2013

The militant Partido ng
Manggagawa (PM) slammed the P10 wage hike in the National Capital Region (NCR) as
a “cruel Napoles joke” inflicted on the workers. “Janet Napoles steals P10
billion from the people’s money and the government offers P10 in coins to
workers as a consolation. While the people’s attention is focused on the billion
peso pork barrel scam, the wage board thinks it can quietly dupe workers with a
measly pay increase,” insisted Wilson Fortaleza, PM’s spokesperson.

Meanwhile PM called on the
Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) which had filed a P83
across-the-board wage petition to coordinate with other labor groups to protest
the NCR wage board’s decision and launch a joint campaign for a living wage. “The
TUCP’s rejection of the wage board’s decision is a good initial move. The next
step should be to complement the TUCP’s appeal to the wage board with a call on
workers to hold mass actions. If the middle class finds it necessary to call a Million
People March for the abolition of the pork barrel, it is imperative on the
working class to launch a mass movement to end the cheap labor policy,” Fortaleza argued.

He added that the P10 wage
hike is a “dagdag-bawi scam.” “Government decides to give workers a P10 hike in
wages but it will take it back with the proposed P10 increase in fares for the MRT
and LRT. Further, prices of basic goods like rice have inflated so that in the
end, workers are worse off than before,” Fortaleza
explained.

“PM’s own study reveals that the cost of living in
the NCR is already P1,200 as of April this year for a family of six and yet the
new minimum wage adds up to only
P466, which will not even buy half of the basket of goods and services,” Fortaleza said.

He continued that “This is
the ugly reality of inequality in our country. The Philippines
is the fastest growing economy in Asia yet
only a few, the capitalist class, is benefiting from the increased wealth created
by the working people. The assets of the ten richest Filipinos amount to some US$45
billion, which is equivalent to the yearly wages of 20 million minimum wage
earners.”

PM contends that thewage boards have
outlived their usefulness and should be replaced by aWage Commission. Fortaleza stated that“The mandate of the National Wage
Commission will be to fix wages based on the single criterion of cost of
living. This is different from the wage
boards which are bogged down by convoluted and contradictory 10-point criteria
in fixing wages. The Wage
Commission should raise the minimum wage
to the level of the living wage
by a mix of mechanisms such as direct pay
increases, tax exemptions, price discounts and social security subsidies for
workers.”

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Our Vision

Our dream is a world that gives due importance to the role of the working class and respects the dignity of labor. A social order where the working men and women of the world live together in peace, harmony and progress.Our aspirations lie in the emancipation of labor. A government that is truly of the workers, by the workers and for the workers.

Our hopes rest in a future where social progress thrives not for the benefit of a few people but for the development and richness of the entire humankind. A society that is free from the chains of wage slavery and where oppression does not exist.

Our Mission

Forge the unity of the workers into an independent working class party to organize them as a potent political force in social transformation towards the advancement and protection of labor from the scourge of globalization, establishment of a genuine workers’ government and the emancipation of the working class from capitalist exploitation and wage slavery.

Workers Unite!

The working class is the most important class in society. But, labor will only be a force to reckon with at a time when labor assumes the responsibility of leading the struggle to a decent living - free from exploitation of the propertied elite.

The time has come to rally every underprivileged sector of the society, to take the bull by the head and confront the issues of today. The working class must take an active role in every political exercise presented. The backbone of the independent party must be comprised of the working class with the other marginalized sectors in solidarity.

We must organize politically.

This is our own challenge and we must vow not to shirk from it.

Our future is in our hands, in our unity, in our struggle, in our party.